a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques of generating musical tone signals, and more particularly to techniques of generating musical tone signals in response to manipulations entered by a user.
b) Description of the Related Art
An electronic musical instrument having an automatic accompaniment function automatically gives a player musical accompaniment in accordance with the type of accompaniment designated by the player. The player can operate upon keys and play melody parts while being given automatic accompaniment. By using the automatic accompaniment function, the player is not required to perform accompaniment parts and can easily play in concert only by giving melody parts.
It is difficult for a novice player even to give melody parts. Musical performance techniques are requested more or less in order to depress keys in accordance with notes on a staff. In order for a player to become accustomed with key depressions, a predetermined set of lessons is generally necessary. An electronic musical instrument with which novices can play in concert has been desired to date.
With an automatic accompaniment function, it is difficult for a plurality of players to play in concert, such as band musical performance. A concert can be performed by interconnecting electronic musical instruments with MIDI cables. However, a system becomes large and cost becomes high.
Various types of game machines are prevailing with high popularity. A game machine has as its operator a game pad. A user manipulates the game pad to enjoy various games. If a concert can be performed with game pads, it is convenient and inexpensive for users.
As compared with a keyboard, the game pad has a considerably small number of keys. For example, a keyboard has 64 or 88 keys, volume keys, tone color select keys and the like. A game pad has about ten keys at most. Since the number of operation keys of a game pad is small, it is difficult to make a musical performance with the game pad.